Damp in a Locker 1
After purchasing a damp meter, the Rapidtest DTM118 and taking some readings of our own. The area for concern was on the offside awning rail (see: Water Ingress Report 2006) where the reading was high.
After investigation, a small piece of wallboard and polystyrene was cut away inside the locker, a small piece of wallboard replaced in a locker would not be noticed! It soon became apparent there was a wet piece of wood and the readings were high right into the corner, the bathroom cabinet would have to come out so that it could be determined how far the damp went.
Dried the area, then trying to get into the corner to effect repairs was so frustrating, it was decided to take the locker out, as a previous repair could be seen I would be able to have less joins in the wallboard and it gave me access to the corner, to actually get near to the damaged wood.
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Overview of the locker,situated on
the offside above large window. |
View of corner inside the locker,
where damp reading is high. |
Removed wallboard and polystyrene
to get a better look. |
|
Very damp patch 150 mm long,
but it goes over a wider area.
Need to look on the other side
of the wall. |
Behind damp, nothing to see at
the awning rail.
|
Removed bathroom cabinet to gain
access to do meter readings.
(See: Bathroom Cabinet Removal)
|
|
A lttle further along, reading is
lower.
|
A bit more reading drops to
normal.
|
Removed wallboard and poly for a
better look, wood just damp. Area
dried with heat gun, and 1KW
heater. |
|
Access restricted decided to re-
move the locker.
(See: Locker Removal) |
After removal, joins of the previous
repair can be seen. Some wall-
board not stuck very well. |
Blind and more wallboard removed,
Less joins- neater finish, thats the
theory! |
|
Soft wood fell out, used a chisel
to carefully remove back to good
wood. |
Wood removed to the roof, trim
damaged by previous repair, won't
be seen in cupboard. |
Used a Forstner bit to remove
wood to make half lap joints.
|
|
Replacement wood 25mm thick,
it's deeper than the original but
that doesn't matter. |
Trial fit, note gap between wood
and ceiling, wallboard fits in this.
|
Glued and screwed into place.
Glue used Sikaflex 512 Caravan.
|
|
Overview of the area, there is a
void above the window, damp
could form in there. |
Closer view, will have to insulate it
with polystyrene, glued into place.
|
Small block glued into place and
stapled for fixing the blind.
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Page 2 - Damp in a Locker
Page Created 7th March 2007 | 
